Posted on 05/20/2009 5:28:08 AM PDT by bocopar
You know, enough is enough.
In what he casts as an attack on litterbugs and nicotine addiction alike, Mayor Gavin Newsom wants to impose a fee on an age-old inhabitant of city streets: the cigarette butt.Let's get something started.The proposal, to be introduced next month to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, would add 33 cents to the cost of a pack of cigarettes, to offset the estimated $10.7 million the city spends annually removing discarded butts from gutters, drainpipes and sidewalks.
On the last weekend of every month, cigarette smokers (who use a legal product properly yet are demonized) will not buy cigarettes. If done monthly on a national scale, this should noticeably impact federal and state revenues to the point where lawmakers will either ban this dangerous product or leave us the hell alone.
Pass this on.
This campaign certainly has the right leader.
I have to say, the butts are really the only problem I have with smokers. If they don’t want butts in their ashtray, what makes them think that we want them on the streets and sidewalks?
That being said, Gavin Newsom is a jackass.
Solution: Stop making filter cigaretts. Residue then is totally biodegradable. Wow, there is a good lefty word.
LOL They sure do.
>>Solution: Stop making filter cigaretts. Residue then is totally biodegradable. Wow, there is a good lefty word.<<
LOL! True.
My dad told me stories of his time in the Army.
They were told how to butt out the cigs, then rip the paper and have the tobacco fly away.
No filters back then.
On the other hand, my pet peeve is folks throwing their burning butts out of their cars. I honk at them if I see them in the act. Some day I'll get shot for it, but hey, just remember I died doing something I loved.
I agree that there are lazy smokers who litter.
But how about kids who toss their candy wrappers or soda cans on the street? Take a look at any street and tell me all the litter is only cigarettes.
This is not a litter issue. It’s the ongoing use of smokers as a demonized revenue base, pure and simple.
Start carrying your ash tray with you where ever you go.
However, I would like to know where politicians come up with their figures. It seems to me like they just pull a number out of their rear ends when they want to raise ever more money.
I used to come home with a pocketful of filters everyday.
And if we do and less “litter” money comes in, just who will the Newsoms tax next?
Or..beaches.
Geeze! By the time August comes the New Jersey beaches are more butt than sand. DISGUSTING!
Smokers think that the beach is their personal ashtray.
>>But how about kids who toss their candy wrappers or soda cans on the street? <<
They are coming for them next.
Tax on candy, deposit for cans.
Good for you!
When I drive, I see butts on the street. So what? In the spring the street cleaners pick them and all the candy wrappers, leaves. fast food boxes, tissues etc, all up at once.
You can’t tell me that if all smokers suddenly kicked the habit, the streets would be clean.
They already have a budget for street cleaning to pick up and remove litter and other debris from the streets and trash containers. Do these idiots expect us to believe that the cigarette butts added to the other forms of trash cost an additional $10.7 million per year to remove? Or maybe they expect us to believe that there are trash crews that only pick up candy wrappers and drink bottles, and other trash crews that only pick up butts.
I read another thread about this. Some smokers were saying that if they’re going to be punished for crimes that they didn’t commit, the ashtrays will be dumped into the streets.
I say, go for it!
Expect to see more cigarette butts on the street. I’m not one to throw a cigarette butt on the ground, but if I’m going to pay 33 cents per pack, I figure I should get my money’s worth.
This tax is a permission and license to litter.
Great. Then they shouldn’t object to the butts being strewn around, as they’re getting money to pick them up.
Hey, I’ve got an idea. We used to do this at this folk music festival we used to go to. Pay a penny apiece for cigarette butts. Give the bums... err children something to do and they get a little money.
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